Chances of Technology
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Track-Summary - Chances of Technology.
The Track-Summary makes no references to the general discussions-forum. Many voices heard there could have had their proper place here. Eitherway, we will give an abstract of that ongoing discussion later in the week.
General Observation
There was a general observation that the Internet holds ready a wealth of features which could help the Liberals in promoting their ideas and values. Even better: Yavnika Khanna voiced the opininon that the idea of the Internet is in sync with liberal philosophy inasmuch as it is scalable to our need to spread the gospel.
Scepticism and Disappointment: Weakness of Liberals in using the Internet.
Extremists, Conservatives and Islamists make an agressive use of the Internet. These groups find uniformity among them on issues and make it their strength during a campaign. „Why not the Liberals?“ – asks Shafqat Aziz and finds an answer in the „individualistic“ even solipsitic approach and quite often „narcissitic“ behaviour of many of us when it comes to disagreement. It seems that the Internet cannot help if we don’t give up on this attitude which he labels „individual freedom“ and what Manuel Glotzbach labeled the „lone fighters“ syndrome.
Cold Reception for the „Creative Class“
The ideas of Richard Florida about Technology, Talent and Tolerance got a rather cold reception. Was it misconception? Or was it I who spoke about becoming „sedentary“ opening a thread about TTT? Seems so.
Toolbox for „Creative People“
Nevertheless, Michael Vernon Guerrero, an IAF alumnus, started a thread about tools that allow "creative people" among us to reach our potential and reach our "markets."
Thanks to Michael I can put together his many recommendations – ordered by need or feature:
Video- Up- and Downloading: http://www.youtube.com http://www.blip.tv http://www.keepvid.com (downloading) May I add my favorite? Get Firefox (the Browser) and add a so-called addon to its features („Download Helper“) The exentsion supports nearly all video-websites. http://www.downloadhelper.net/
Event broadcasting: (http://www.ustream.tv).
Creating your own social network: Facebook, Friendster, etc. are established networks. Now, what if one wants to create his/her own social networking site, but he/she is without extensive technical skills nor the capital to hire people who have such skills and to maintain hosting services to keep it public, is it still possible? One might want to look into Ning (http://www.ning.com)
Publishing text with images (without incurring copyright infringement) Flickr.com is the place. http://flickr.com/search/advanced/ select "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content"
Music (listen) If one wants to listen to music, besides those provided by the recording companies or in paid services, those in Magnatune http://www.magnatune.com (you can listen to all tracks before buying the whole album, if you like them so much).
May I add? http://www.songza.com (stream)
http://www.jamendo.com The additional feature in Jamendo is that certain (!!) songs and albums are CC licensed, and hence can be shared legally according to the license terms.
Music (creating / mixing) But if your intention is to create music, like that brief arrangement before each FNST video ( smiling smiley ), you can look into CC Mixter http://www.ccmixter.org http://www.monkeysaudio.com (for lossless clips).
PDF-Files Looking for a repository for PDF files you wish to share to the public? You might want to look into Scribd http://www.scribd.com (PDFs are directly viewable there and are searchable)
Slideshare The place for your slides and presentations. http://www.slideshare.net